Programmer Ivan Kutskir of the Czech Republic has created an online-based Photoshop clone called Photopea. The web app was created solely by Kutskir in his free time during college, according to a Reddit AMA the developer held on Wednesday. Photopea features a Photoshop-like interface and is supported by advertisements.

The Photoshop clone offers a wide variety of image editing tools, including advanced features like spot healing, a clone stamp healing brush, and a patch tool. The software supports layers, masks, smart objects, layer styles, filters, vector shapes and masks, and more. A full rundown of Photopea's tools is available on the app's website, as well as tutorials for select basic activities.

Photopea took more than 7,000 hours of work, according to Kutskir's Reddit post. The web app had 1.5 million visitors in October and offers a premium subscription for customers who want to support the product. Free usage includes PSD importing and exporting, as well as access to the editing tools. The premium version includes those features, eliminates the advertisements, and helps support the developer.

A single-user premium subscription is $9/month or $20 for 90 days. The developer also offers team and distributor options. Photopea joins other free photo editing programs, including the web app Pixlr Editor and desktop application GIMP.

Some dude working out of his mum’s basement gets hacked, and all of a sudden everyone on his network is part of a bot net and sharing the root of their hard drive with a guy named Ivan. No thank you. Been there, done that.

With Apple suing Samsung for rounded corners which is ridiculous but was taken seriously how this exact copy of Photoshop will have chance when Adobe guys see this? This is gonna get very ugly for talented guy. Should have put more efforts to make it look different. Even icons look exactly the same. Kinda lame approach.

I tried some 36mp jpg files from my a7r. I have a powerful i7 computer and graphics card, but all the sliders (even just moving the exposure slide) are very unresponsive, Taking seconds to react and overshoot. However, as soon as I cropped the image to 6000x4000 (24mp) it started behaving. The 36mp raw file was just hanging, so not sure if it ever would have opened up by waiting .... But I like the idea that I can edit photos on any computer and it worked reasonably well on my samsung tablet. (I plugged in the otg mouse :) )It was faster on firefox and edge than chrome. But perhaps i have too many add-ons on chrome and needs resetting now and then.

I am really impressed how good and fast it this software. Works without login and registration. And the person who make it must be a really good programmer. Thank you for bringing this software for community.

As per many comments. Please do not compare this software directly to Adobe. This is free version and you can use it for many things. Don like it. Do not use it.

Also please remember that this soft for example doesn’t work with CMYK colors. So you can”t use it for DTP stuff.

This app isn't to bad. I tried with a few tiff files (converted from ARWraw files) and didn't suffer any problems editing on my PC using Chromium on Linux.It's not fully featured just yet but has a lot of the major tools and saved the finished file back to the PC with ease. I wish Gimp had the patch tool that this and PS has for imperfections near edges.If this works on the Galaxy Tab S3 with the pen, I could see my self using this a lot.

Hundreds of people have worked on Photoshop for decades to get it where it is today. If this one guy has come up with something as good "in his free time during college", without infringing any copyrights, then he is indeed a genius.

Actually, this looks good for basic activities. BUT why it is an online app? While trying it a accidentally closed it's page and of course had no warning that my work is not saved. This alone makes this program unusable. Create a separate exe for it please.

Being an online app means it can be used a cross multiple devices without having to write code for each OS. In my books this is good, down side is if you have no or slow internet. Making an exe means it needs to be written for Windows, then any Windows update could break it. Then of course it will need to be written for Mac too or lose that large percentage of users. Then you have iOS and Android for the mobile future. That's four programs to take care of and updates to look out for. Online you only need to code for your server and may need to make some changes for different web browsers. This way you reach Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and may others.

As for accidentally closing the web browser. Turn on closing warnings so you are warned before closing with anything unsaved . (Mine asks me an I sure I want to close or leave the page).Open a new browser to only work on editing that way you won't close your editing browser will surfing the net.Hide the top bar removing the X.

Online app can be turned into a stand alone program with ease under any OS it can work with. So almost no new coding will be required. As for me, I think I'll stay with PS for a little more, online apps look too untrustworthy for me... Besides having an editor constantly pause for loading of some parts (like fonts) is... ummm... strange and is nothing i want to adapt to. Yet I am almost sure his program will be turned into standalone programs in near future if it will survive long enough.

Yep definitely kill this free to use project off lolol. The idea is not a photoshop replacement but something in order to do a quick change in front of a client where you don't have access to your software. Ah negative people.

ACDsee anyone? They offer some good alternatives. I am using Photo Studio for Mac. A cheap but good bit of software for hobbyists (or Pros's). Their Windows software is much better by all accounts. I don't think their RAW conversions are quite the best (at least for my cameras) but they are OK. I still have a subscription for Adobe but I reckon I could get by with PS CS6 (which I own) and ACDsee for previewing and culling etc. If Adobe put up their prices I may have to.

On the contrary, i don't really like the latest Adobe subscription practices but just realizing that this guy could have got himself into serious trouble. He not only reverse engineered the whole Photoshop but also is charging money for it. This could get very ugly for him. He is based in Czech republic not in China. Adobe will go after him sooner or later. Again appreciate his efforts but if you are too slow minded you don't realize what he did here. He basically stole the whole Photoshop concept. Not cool!

If i was him i'll get in touch with Adobe, im sure he could get job there easily or could make some deal with Adobe to develop his product for other platforms or sell it to them. His concept is cool but still it is Photoshop which he did not make first.

I will gladly pay $10 a month not to see ads while I work on Photos. And it can't replace Photoshop for me unless it can be controlled by Javascript or AppleScript. I also have to wonder about security.

Why do you need to use Lightroom with Photoshop? I use Photoshop daily and feel it worth the monthly fee (I also use Indesign daily).. but I use Capture 1 for RAW and IdImager as a full featured DAM... If you like LR, you can still use an alternative - sure you are paying for both... but if you feel the price is right.. there are many free or cheap alts to photoshop.

Pros like yourself, you can afford and are capable to use multiple tools for sure but for hobbists like myself, what Lightroom does is more than enough. I rarely use photoshops either. I’m sure C1 is a great program but the cost is more than I can spend for what I do. And most importantly my comment is rather a sarcasm.

I don't use LR at all. It's the worst RAW processor out there... BUT I am so used to interface of Photoshop, it's basic functions, like Layers etc, that every other program I've tried seems to be uncomfortable... That's why I still have PS on my PC.

I think this guy has done a great job and should be applauded (and supported). All those who suspect their photographic masterpieces are going to be sucked away to the Czech Republic should sit down in a comfy chair, smile dreamily, and feel a nice warm safe feeling as Adobe sucks another fat monthly charge from their bank account for providing no worthwhile updates.

So this guy should be supported at $9/month for a PS clone but Adobe should be vilified because they "suck another fat monthly charge" at $10/month for PS, LRC, LRM, and Bridge... wow, the Adobe hate on here never ceases to amaze me.

My company provides me with CC. In two years, I cannot remember the last time any update to any application contained any feature I needed, and Illustrator simply gained some window dressing and extra bugs. Adobe has limitless resources and yet does very little. This guy probably did this work in his spare time, and still only charges if you want "premium". I voluntarily pay the Blender Foundation €10/month for their incredible open source program (even though it's completely free), since their tiny team of brilliant developers produces useful updates and massive new features at 10x the rate of that giant, lazy, greedy, corporate sloth called Adobe. These "little guys" deserve to be supported in their efforts; I find Adobe is entirely undeserving.

@Reactive - what kind of new features do you really need at this point in the life cycle of these products? Photoshop is pretty feature rich and can do so many wonders for $10 a month... what possibly could they add that would be so earth shattering at this point???

Wow, complaining about pricing/updates on a product that your company pays for you to have... such a first world problem!But wait, it gets better... because its perfectly okay for someone else to subscribe to an online app that offers less for pretty much the same money LOL, I love these forums!

You are missing the point of what Reactive is saying. He is saying that Adobe justify subscription by saying you get free updates if you pay the subscription. What Adobe doesnt say is if you dont want the updates you can buy a perpetual license! USA Adobe customers get cheaper subscription than those of us in Europe! That sucks big time. Adios Adobe.

How do you get $10 a month? The photo plan is normally $20 a month (but is on sale right now at $15). I agree that Adobe is a much better value by about 100x, but let's not misrepresent the actual costs.

Works okay on Jpgs and Photoshop files - could be very usable on the fly using tablets and laptops. However when opening a Raw image (D7200) which it comes up with raw conversion dialogue box hangs for me.

Affinity Photo... like 50$ once... and it's yours... more features... better performance... and no monthly fees or advertisments to be pestered with.or gimp? or ...I mean if you need something ultra-portable (read: runs in a web-browser without local install) - this is perhaps interesting... but aside from that I somehow fail to see the advantage. And in reality how often does it actually happen, that you need to edit a photo file (that you have either previously stored on google drive, or carry on a stick, but don't carry your laptop?

I own Affinity on both Mac and IOS and while it appeals hugely at least conceptually, I find it way too unnecessarily complicated. I hope they simplify it a bit as it deserves to succeed, but at the moment it’s a PITA.

Also this is going to be a total game changer for situations where I have to edit something on someone else's computer with whatever they have installed already (read: when my parents assume I can edit stuff on their laptop when I visit despite them continuing to uninstall gimp every time I leave)As long as they've got a browser, you're good.

Cool note: this is actually somewhat usable on phones, (can be run chromeless as a pwa) which means it's I think the first photo editor on android with full, functional, normal adjustment layers + masking.

And on my blackberry, keyboard shortcuts for tools work. This is stupid and I love it

Fergus Ferguson,Sadly, all those who "like" yslee1 are also ignorant... ;-)This is precisely because this is a client-side app that runs in the user's environment and is allowed to manipulate user's files, that an indelicate programmer could add some lines of code to send those files over the internet...

You did not catch my point, all of you. I do not say that this app is more dangerous than Photoshop. I just react to the false yslee1's belief that a client app should be safer than, let's say, a cloud-based application. The advantage of a client app is that it can have its code, or behavior, analyzed. But to be truly safe, some experts (because you know, hammarbytp, only experts can do it, not me, and maybe not you too..) should analyse the app before it is released, which is never the case.Oh, and I am not paranoid (I have already tried the app) and I have personally nothing against the Czech Republic, this is just because the OP cites it...

No, this is the code of the application (written in HTML5, Javascript) that is downloaded onto your computer to be interpreted and executed by the web browser engine, each time you click on the application URL. This is what makes this kind of application "universal". Whatever the operating system or hardware platform, all web browsers understand HTML(5), Javascript. The application then operates locally on your local files...

Yes, it works on tablets, although the ui is slightly more confusing without a mouse imho. Afaik it doesn't send your images anywhere (if I load the page, then disconnect from the network, I can still load an image and work).

That’s a nice alternative, but I will keep my own stuffs which is Affinity + Luminar. Don’t have to deal with Adobe subscriptions or having a hard time doing minor things which take seconds to make in Affinity.

It works on my computer (I mean Photoshop).It works with say 1gb files as well as my pc can handle.Imagine every change on big file will take 1 hour till it uploads/downloads to and from the providers server (in this case)!You will never finish you work.It is not a Google Docs with couple MB files max.For full disclosure. I do not like Adobe but I pay them for their product as there are no alternatives.This guy would make more money should te make it work locally.

For me, Corel's PaintShop Pro Ultimate, with all the components that come with it, is a far better alternative to Photoshop. They have a 30-day free trial so you can test drive it and decide. Lots of tutorial videos on YouTube as well.

The only free thing that I am aware of is NIK Color and I payed for that too ages ago... (Adobe is nasty with subscription.. well, it is called *monopoly)*complete ownership or control of the entire supply of goods or a service in a certain market

I am just curious. Please, what is your OS, RAM amount and WEB browser ? Do you remember what operation you were doing when the error occured ? I would like to try the same on my side...Also, you can contribute by sending your feedbacks to the creator.IMHO, this app is a good concept and should be helped by feedbacks...One should keep in mind that WEB apps are interpreted HTML5 or Javascript code and a properly written and compiled code will always run faster. So, an app like this one is reserved for fast machines...

krita is becoming a real competitor for most of my photoshop tasks. Together with darktable I can do 95% of what I could with LR & PS. Unfortunately darktable is still slower and less 'developed' that LR. Its a matter of time

If you want to use Photopea in a complete cloud desktop, we have created a Photopea app in the Friend Platform. Try the signup to our cloud workspace via https://go.friendup.cloud - disclaimer: I work at Friend Software.

I have been hoping that someday a developer will look up the old Micrografx Picture Publisher 10 and learn something from its interface and tools. Despite being almost 20 years old, I still prefer to use it rather than Photoshop for my retouching. (Raw conversion is done in DXO or C1.)

The clone tool is so much better in Picture Publisher that when I try to use it in other programs I realize they are terrible for that function... once you know what a good implementation works like. The program can generate random sky patterns that really help with my exterior architectural work. It also has much better implementation of thins such as lighting effects, flare, text, and many other things.This was a Windows only program so it never really caught on in the Mac dominated photography world at the time.

Right now, Photopea works with the sRGB color space (the basic color space for the web), with the 8-bit color depth. All exported files use sRGB, too.

And personally, i'd *never* upload my Files into some kind of Webeditor, to retouche them online via Browser. It's the same with many other Tools of this kind. But Pixlr is one of the most known one - why another PS Clone inside the Browser?

There are good Freeware Photo Editors being avialable, also some do have PSD and also 16bit TIF and also AdobeRGB Support.

Capture One Pro is overpriced (€300!), a pain to use in terms of workflow. Phase One is pushing subscriptions almost as hard as Adobe. Having been burned four times paying for dead Phase One apps (Expression Media x 2, Media Pro rebranding - never worked properly after acquisition no matter how many times I paid for upgrades, Capture One LE, Capture One Five, Capture One Sony 10 - no update path) and having nothing to show for my money ever (apart from two months with Capture One Sony 10 before the new version came out with no discount for paid users), Phase One won't be seeing more of my money any time soon. Trust lost completely.

Proceed with caution.

PS. The new price is now €349. Phase One have managed to hike the new price another €70 since last time I visited as well as hiking Capture One Sony Pro from €59 to €219! Would it wise to trust these sharks any more than Adobe?

You make things way too easy. This guy developed the app in 5 years using its free time. What he achieved is simply the result of his dedication. I am sure that he's a really good programmer, like many other programmers in the world who are not millionaires (or billionaires).

@richdm "Assuming this is your point - Since Photopea is an *online* editor, I'll bet doubt you can't run it without an internet connection."

That is my point exactly. I'm always with an internet connection, but I'm rarely with my computer that has Photoshop. A cloud-based editor, if fully capable and well-performing, is preferable to one that’s tied to a specific physical machine.

Okay, I see your point. But IMHO, given the success of the subscription model, your use case is probably an exception rather than the rule. So while I'm not taking anything away from this programmer's achievement, I still think $9 a month is high compared to $10 a month for PS & LR.

I agree I'm probably an exception. I only own one computer that's left at home.

People will eventually expect this level of availability from more and more of their software tools. I wouldn't doubt that in ten years Adobe is fully cloud-based, with the processing occurring on powerful server clusters.

How many of you still run an desktop email client like Outlook or Thunderbird? If not, why?

desertsp,I use Thunderbird as an email client... But I am like you, I mainly use a desktop computer at home because my desktop is faster than my laptop. And I am rarely on the go with my laptop.I would like to mention that Photopea is written in a mix of HTML5 and Javascript languages, that is to say, interpreted languages. It will never be as fast as an installed app written in C++. I do not mean that Photoshop or Lightroom are fully written in C++, I do not know, but at least, when speed matters, critical modules can be written in C++ or even assembly language.So, the weird consequence of this is that people who are the most likely to use this "slow" app are people on the go with a "slow" laptop or tablet.

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